In a 9-4 vote, the University of West Florida announced current Provost Martha Saunders as its newly elected president during its final search committee meeting on Thursday, Sept. 15.

The meeting was held at the UWF Center for Fine and Performing Arts mainstage theater, and was also webcast live via WUWF.

The meeting was called to order by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Lewis Bear, Jr. With two board members attending by phone, a quorum was reached and the meeting opened with public comment.

After a half-hour of public comment, it became clear that the race was between Provost Saunders and Senator Don Gaetz. Frank Ashley and Mike Sherman were not mentioned once in the public discussion.

Marc Churchwell, Chairman of the Military and Veterans Resource Center, said he is in favor of Saunders. Churchwell said Saunders helped expand services and fund new facilities for our veterans, who make up 25 percent of our student population.

Once the public comments were over, the search committee reviewed the final candidate’s on-campus interviews.

“Each candidate performed exceptionally well and were highly qualified for the position,” committee Chairman Mort O’Sullivan said. The discussion then went to the “three unranked candidates the search committee would forward to the board.”

Greenwood/Asher and Associates, Inc., search firm made its final evaluation and recommendations moving forward with the selection of a final candidate. After completed, the chairman called for a vote on the amendment, which failed. The board voted to move all four candidates forward to the Board of Trustees for final selection.

The Board of Trustees opened the discussion once again, and several students came forward to speak about the candidates.

Sophomore journalism major Abigail Megginson came forward with a petition entitled “Argos Against Gaetz.” Megginson managed to get 336 signatures of students who were opposed to Don Gaetz being appointed President.

“Three of the candidates have a PhD., Gaetz does not,” Megginson said. “Three of the candidates have prior university leadership experience, Gaetz does not. The president of the university should be a ‘hub for higher education’ to meet that position of academic excellence. Candidates need to have at least a PhD.” Megginson went on to say that the University needs a president who will lead UWF as a small, regional university, not a large central one.

Senior Joseph Jackson said he feels that African Americans, and minority groups in general, are simply disregarded, and said that whomever takes the president’s job should give the minorities back their voice.

Telecommunications student Teremis Boykin said he believes UWF needs a president who really cares about the students.

“I’m just an average guy,” Boykin said. “We understand that money is important, but a true university president should not worry about money. A real president should worry about the needs and concerns of the students.”

Following public comments, the Presidential Search Committee presented its report to the Board of Trustees.

The final votes from the Board of Trustees came in with nine votes for Saunders, four for Gaetz, and no votes for the remaining candidates.

The Presidential Search Committee continues its work to select the next president of the University of West Florida. The minimum qualifications for the position, as posted on the presidential search website, are:

The next president should be someone who possesses academic credentials that inspire respect among the student body and community at large.

Commitment to scholarship, learning, and discovery.

Strong leadership qualities.

Business, government, and political acumen.

Ability to work within complex, multifaceted systems.

Vision to deal with dramatic challenges of the ongoing transformation of higher education.

Megan Gonzalez, executive director of University Marketing and Communications, said the committee narrowed down the list of candidates from 83 applicants to 19 by examining their resumes. Of those 19 candidates, three withdrew from the application, and 16 chose to come for the interviews. Those who were accepted were invited to UWF to get interviewed by the Presidential Search Committee on August 29-31. The committee conducted a one-hour interview with each candidate.

After reviewing the candidates on August 31, the committee asked on additional references for eight of the candidates “as an indicator of a higher level of interest without a formal vote,” Mort O’Sullivan, chair of the committee, said. Those eight candidates were: James Applegate, Frank Ashley, Ronald Elsenbaumer, Don Gaetz, Bahman Ghorashi, Martha Saunders, Mike Sherman, and Alan Utter.

“I am extremely pleased that 16 people of the 19 that were invited, chose to take two days out of their life to come spend an hour with our committee,” O’Sullivan said. “It tells me that this opportunity at this university is very attractive to many people. That is encouraging.”

The committee met again on Sept. 6 to discuss the eight candidates and to look at additional research by the consulting firm on each candidate. The firm looked at all of their history and reports, and spoke to supervisors and co-workers. After the search committee evaluated the results, it narrowed the list of candidates to four:

Mike Sherman, vice president for Innovation and Economic Development at The University of Akron

Those four candidates will come to UWF for a second round of interviews that will be carried on Sept. 11-14.

On Sept. 15 the Presidential Committee will present three candidates to the UWF Board of Trustees, which will select the next president.

The Sept. 15 meeting will be held in the Music Hall of the UWF Center for Fine & Performing Arts, building 82, room 224, at 9 a.m.

Students, faculty, staff members, and members of the public are welcome to attend the meetings held Sept. 11-15. For more information on the presidential search as well as schedules for meetings, go to: uwf.edu/presidentialsearch.

The Irish Experience exhibit opened Sept. 9 at The Art Gallery at the University of West Florida. It includes the work of art students who spent 28 days of their summer in Ireland eating, breathing and learning about Irish culture.

“UWF’s Irish Experience program allows students to take their artistic talents abroad and focus on their individual fine art disciplines and areas of interest,” The Art Gallery states. “During the program, which lasted from May 25 through June 23 this year, theatre and music students were given the opportunity to perform in such venues as the George Bernard Shaw Theatre and Carlow Cathedral in Carlow and the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. Art students were able to work alongside Irish artists David King and Elizabeth Cope.”

“We flew into Dublin, Ireland and then traveled about an hour away to Carlow, Ireland, where we stayed at Carlow University,” said Nicholas Croghan, director of The Art Gallery. “We were there for 28 days. For the first week we did some touring around the coast and recovered from jet lag. After the first week, the students began their classes on Irish history and studio art for six credit hours,” he said.

Half the artwork was done during the time students spent in Ireland, and the other half once they returned home. About 90 pieces of artwork are displayed in the exhibit. All different types of artwork are on display, from watercolors, drawings, digital photography, printmaking, paintings and sculptures. The artwork also depicts the scenery, culture, wildlife, architecture and landscapes of Ireland.

“My art work included in the Irish Experience Exhibition deals with isolation and the insignificance one can feel in a new place when surrounded by overwhelming beauty,” Jaime Diffee, a student artist who participated in the program, said. “The work also reflects the serenity that accompanies isolation, the meditative peace when you become part of the environment, anonymity, and the acceptance of events that need to unfold.”

When the exhibit opened for its first full day at noon on Sept. 10 students were there to see it.

“I found out about this exhibit from a flyer on the wall in the anthropology building and was instantly interested because of my Irish background,” said Brett Farran, freshman environmental science major. “The artwork was beautiful and very cool. My parents traveled to Ireland this summer, which made me a little jealous. Now seeing this artwork, I really want to go.”

The exhibition is free and open to the public through Oct. 1 in the Center for Fine and Performing Arts in Building 82. The Art Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from noon until 4 p.m. while the exhibit is in process.

The University of West Florida men’s soccer team fell to Rollins College 2-1 in overtime at home on Friday night’s matchup on Sept. 9.

After a scoreless first half, the Argos and the Tars were tied 0-0, but it didn’t take long into the second half before Rollins broke the tie. Senior midfielder Tosan Popo scored the first goal of the night on an assist by junior midfielder, Matt Volk.

The Argos redshirt sophomore Alik Morgan assisted Teague Coleman with a goal in the 81st minute. Coleman, a freshman midfielder from Winter Park, tied the game with his first career college goal.

“It was an electric feeling,” Coleman said after scoring the first time as an Argo. “Probably not a feeling that I could have ever again, but it was amazing.”

Rollins took 18 shots in the game, with four of those on the goal, and four saves. UWF made 11 shots, five of those on the goal, with two saves. The game ended 6:17 into overtime, when Volk scored the game-winning goal for the Tars, making the Argos season record so far 0-3.

“It was a well, hard-fought game that was miles better than last week,” Coleman said. “Now were just going to build on it.”

Sophomore midfielder, Kameron Bethell, one of three picked from the Argos for the league’s annual Preseason All-Gulf South Conference team, said team members’ biggest concern is their record, but in the Rollins game that today they didn’t play badly.

“Our concern is what position we’re in, but it’s not all negative,” Bethell said. “We haven’t played a conference game yet. Next week we come in playing a GSC game, and I feel if we play to our strengths we should be able to come up with results.”

According to GoArgos.com, the team lost 17 players from the 2015 season. However, it also gained 17 players, 13 of them freshmen.

“Its always tough to move from a lower level to a higher level, but our freshmen this year seem to be doing it very well,” Bethell said. “They are all coming in and playing to the best of their abilities, and today I was very proud of them.”

He said the team still has a 100 percent chance of making another run at the GSC Finals, but that the team needs to come out with the willingness and desire to win.

The Argos seek their first win of the season next weekend in their first conference games, Friday, Sept. 16 at 5 p.m. against Union University at home. Followed by a match Sunday, Sept. 18 at 12:30 p.m. against Christian Brothers University at home.

This artist’s rendering is the vision of what the UWF football stadium might eventually look like.

Photo by Sara Agans.

All year we’ve seen it being built. Piles of dirt being pushed around, machinery in use, and finally, the new Argos practice field has been completed. On April 16, it had its first introduction to the UWF community when the blue-white game was played there.

For the next two years, the inaugural UWF football team will practice there, and play home games downtown at Wahoos Stadium. But what about a long-term home stadium on campus for the team?

The current football practice field will eventually become the game field, UWF Athletic Director David Scott said. “No different than what you see out there… you don’t want to spend money twice, so you are trying to put it in the spot where it is going to be,” Scott said.

Looking at the practice field now, Scott said on one end of the field, there could potentially be a building there.

“As we are able to add throughout the years, we will just continue to build out to what will eventually be a stadium, what will eventually be a facility that we will use. As far as the timeline and how quickly that will happen, that will determine on money and giving, and even on the next (UWF) president. It’ll be interesting how that plays out,” Scott said.

UWF has a contract with the Wahoos stadium to play there for the next two years, with an option of three one-year renewals after that. Scott said he expects the team to play there for three to five years, but it could be longer.

“There’s a lot of advantages to playing downtown, because we don’t have to spend a lot of money on building. So as we are starting to build other pieces, you can only do certain things as you can afford to do them,” Scott said.

He said more than 2,000 people came to the spring game and were enjoying hanging out. “A few guys brought a couch on top of the hill and were sitting there and they had their fraternity flag with them. People came and went, similar to the scrimmage we had downtown, so it was a neat environment,” Scott said.

“The part about bringing football to campus, some people look at it as a sport, but really it is about enhancing student life, hopefully making people aware of the University of West Florida, because we have a great academic institution. There were kids around the field from Enterprise, Alabama; Tate High School; kids from in town; so you are bringing in kids that maybe wouldn’t have looked at the University of West Florida before,” Scott said.

Scott said athletics are something that brings alumni back to campus, and give current students something to rally around. “It creates that glue that ties people back to the institution, like when you see the kind of people that showed up to the game last Saturday, and you get in conversations with people that are alums from 20 years ago that tell you that they thought they would never see the day.”

“Ever since the field has been built, on Twitter you will see sororities, fraternities and general students posting pictures with the Argo head and taking pictures on the field. It’s one of those places that is iconic and uniquely UWF,” Scott said.

“Hopefully what transpires is that it helps the university grow and bring a greater awareness for the University of West Florida. But as far as the field goes, it’s just the first step in a building process; the timeline is sort of to be determined.”

Friday’s CAB After Dark event was highlighted by GrooveBoston, an “electro-awesome” experience that creates large-scale events on college campuses.

“GrooveBoston really isn’t an artist or band – it’s an experience,” said Chris Dutton, brand director for GrooveBoston. “For the past seven-plus years, we have combined in-house, resident talent with world-class production to create legendary events on college campuses across the country.”

According to the website, www.grooveboston.com, “Our mission is to make people happy by delivering the most intense, engaging event your campus has ever seen. To pursue our mission effectively, we realized that the traditional concert model would need to be completely reinvented. A concert needs to be an EXPERIENCE, not a spectator sport.”

The current tour is the Ethos Tour.

“While traditional ‘concerts’ tend to focus on a single artist, we’ve found that it takes a lot more than that to create sustained, widespread engagement at a college concert in an era where we all have Spotify and decent headphones,” Dutton said. “Our approach is to eliminate those musical limits and focus on the experience as a whole – creating something uniquely authentic, engaging, and powerful. What that means is that we don’t prepare a specific track list built around a particular genre or artist, but dynamically adjust the flow in real-time based on what we think will hit the hardest.”

“At first I was really unsure as to what GrooveBoston was,” said Jordan Ference, a UWF senior majoring in nursing. “If it’s a DJ, then the music was as good as any DJ. The atmosphere was good, the lights made the aesthetic. They played popular songs and edited versions. It was good.”

Bria Bellamy, senior psychology major, said, “Though I didn’t get a chance to catch the musical side of the show because of working at the Commons for CAB After Dark, it seems as though students really liked the musical guest. Snapchat doesn’t lie, and from the different stories that I saw, it seemed as though everyone that came out to the event really enjoyed themselves.”

“I’ve been working with GrooveBoston for almost five years now as one of their live artists,” said Jay Nightride, one of the two headlining DJs at Friday’s event, along with Dutton. “I spend a lot of time with our music team assisting in track preparation and selection and live theatrics.”

“The GrooveBoston production model is designed to focus on the total integration of all individual parts that comprise a great event,” said Bianca Mauro, the Production Director for GrooveBoston. “Beginning with the initial concept phase, and continuing throughout the designs of the staging, lighting, audio, video, and special effects, we are always searching for the best ways to synthesize our mission with the spirit of the school and, most importantly, the students. Every show is built for and inspired by you.”

UWF offers high school students the opportunity to be dual enrolled here and at their high school.

Photo courtesy of WVTF.org.

I can still remember my first day of college. I packed my books into my backpack and trekked across campus, struggling to find my classes and not understanding why buildings of similar numbers weren’t always right next to each other. I felt like a small fish in a big pond, but I also felt a newfound independence.

My first day in college sounds like a lot of other students’ except for one difference: I was a dual enrollment student.

“Dual enrollment is an opportunity for qualified high school students to take college courses that will enable them to not only meet the requirements for high school graduation, but it’s also a way for them to earn college credits early,” Eddie Rogers, associate director of Enrollment Affairs at the University of West Florida, said. Rogers acted as my connection to UWF. He helps students register for classes, something he has done for the past four years.

“They have to meet certain requirements,” Kelli Lowe, a guidance counselor at Pine Forest High School in Pensacola, said. “You have to have at least a 3.0 GPA for Pensacola State College and UWF, and you have to have certain test scores.” The test scores I had to have, since I decided to dual enroll at UWF, were those of the ACT.

Lowe was my adviser when I attended Pine Forest and helped in ensuring the classes I signed up for were not only meeting my college requirements, but my high school ones, as well. We would pick out the classes together and then, after the paperwork was signed by her, my mom and I, she would send it off to Rogers and he would register me for classes.

There are several advantages to being a dual enrollment student, the arguably biggest being that the student does not have to pay for tuition or books.

“It’s free college,” Lowe said. “You can’t beat that.”

I had to get my books through the UWF bookstore, but once I picked out the books, all I had to do was sign paperwork and I received my books at no cost to me. The only thing I had to pay for was the parking decal and the transportation to get to the college.

“The biggest benefit to dual enrollment is certainly getting that head start in earning college credits,” Rogers said. “Financially, it’s a way to get college credits without coming out of pocket.”

Not only did I have to have a 3.0 GPA, but I had to maintain it every semester I was in college. From that moment on, I had to have the mindset of a college freshman, not a high school junior.

“You always have to make sure that the students understand that they have to prioritize,” Rogers said.

When I decided to dual enroll, I decided to stop going to high school altogether and spend my days fully at UWF. I remember having to really think about it, since this would mean I would miss out on some high school experiences.

“You’re not actually attending high school,” Lowe said. “You might miss some of the things that go on, especially in senior year.”

But students do have the option of dual enrolling part time, where you spend half the day at your high school and half the day at the college. This way, you get the college experience while also holding onto high school memories. This also allows students in high school programs, such as band, ROTC and chorus, to stay in the program while still being able to get exposure to a college campus.

“There are pros and cons, but I think if a student really wants to get both they can go part time and still get both sides of it,” Lowe said. If a student decides to go full time, however, he or she has the ability to receive the associates degree at high school graduation, Lowe said.

Some high schools offer dual enrollment courses at the high school to go along with their Advance Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, but Rogers said that UWF courses can only be offered at the university.

“For those students who don’t have those accelerated methods, sometimes dual enrollment students are ahead of the game,” Rogers said. “They are also more comfortable in the college environment.”

Unlike when I dual enrolled, where the program was only open to high school juniors and seniors, students as early as freshman can now start taking dual enrollment courses.

Once you complete registration and step foot on campus, you are a full-fledged college student.

And that was true. Though I registered differently, I was at the same level as every other student on campus, just like when I walk across that stage April 24, I will be walking across that stage with my peers.

When I signed up for this program, I had no idea just how it would impact my entire life. It wasn’t always easy; I saw my high school friends slowly disappear and there were times I felt alone. But I wouldn’t trade my time college experience for any high school memory. I might have missed out on a part of my life, but, in the process, I developed a better future for myself.

And some people may think they are missing out on too much by dual enrolling full time, and there is nothing wrong with that. Dual enrollment, especially full time like I did it, isn’t for everyone. I certainly believe that if you have the opportunity and are considering it, dual enrollment is definitely the way to go; because I may be two years younger and my beginnings may be different, but my degree will be the same.

SATs, ACTs, GEDs and high school diplomas … navigating the road to life’s success can be quite the challenge. Especially when you are only 18.

The terms “success” and “The American Dream” have been used to describe the age-old definitions and expectations placed on high school graduates all across the country. “Go to college, get a degree, and get a good job with benefits, buy a home, live the dream” – this has been the advice of parents to their teenagers for decades. But what do those words really mean, and is a college degree the best way to find your own flavor of “success”?

“It really depends on what you want to do with your life,” Sky Braswell, a University of West Florida junior, said. “I have a friend who always hated school. She just wants to be a waitress for the rest of her life.”

A lot of people think that the earning power of a bachelor’s degree has been diminished in recent years, but, according to the Wall Street Journal, someone with a bachelor’s degree will make, on average, nearly $600 to $1,000 more per week than someone with a high school diploma. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the average college graduate with a bachelor’s degree is likely to have about $45,000 to $60,000 dollars of student loan debt that goes with that higher earning potential. After graduation, an initial six-month grace period allows students time to land their career job and get financially situated. When the monthly payments start, the average college graduate may be paying from $375 to $450 a month to service student loans. To support this cost and live a comfortable, middle class, American life, the average college graduate may need to find a job with an annual salary of about $67,000.

“It depends on what area of study you want to go into,” Kaitlyn Helton, a psychology major, said. “There are simply some degrees that aren’t worth the payout, and there are others where you can start making money immediately, such as computer science [or] most STEM-related degrees,” Helton said.

In the 1970s, state governments supplied nearly 75 percent of funding for public colleges, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. In 2012, researchers found that tuition exceeded state funding at public colleges, according to The Washington Post. State funding fell nine percent during this time. The 2008 collapse of financial markets forced the government to make cuts. Higher education took a hit with a sharp decline to state contributions. To pick up the slack, universities have had to hike tuition in order to cover operating costs.

Free federal aid for low-income students hasn’t kept up either. In 1980, the Pell Grant program awarded 77 percent of four-year public university tuition costs to qualified students. By 2011, the grant amount had fallen to 36 percent. A decrease in government support to state universities leaves colleges few options but to increase tuition; a decrease of available aid makes paying for college an ever-increasing burden on students and families.

“I say no, it’s not worth it,” Bridgette Rockette, UWF alumna who graduated in communications, said. “I believe it was a mistake for me to go through college, even though I made it through without any debt. All of my career advances, in a field totally different from my degree, have come from networking and the technical skills I learned in the National Guard, not my degree.”

“The technical skills I learned” – maybe she is on to something. Today much emphasis is placed on high school students to enroll in college, get a degree and aspire for that corner office leaving fewer and fewer people with the skills needed to construct that coveted corner office. Carpenters, contractors, electricians, welders and pipefitters are just a few of the skilled people our workforce is sorely lacking. Not only can you learn these skills at a fraction of the cost of a bachelor’s degree, but also you can be certified in six weeks to nine months, as opposed to the four to five years it takes to complete a bachelor’s degree.

Dellotte Consulting LLP and the Manufacturing Institute reported that in 2011 alone, 80 percent of manufacturers were unable to find enough skilled workers. This shortage of American skilled labor left 600,000 highly paid, blue-collar manufacturing jobs unfilled. According to the report, “The workforce segments that are hardest to fill are those that impact operations the most, and require the most extensive training.”

Back in our parents’ and grandparents’ day, the company would find a promising young worker and groom him or her for the position, training them to have the necessary skills for the position. Unfortunately, these days companies and workers alike have a much more short-term approach to company and worker loyalty. Companies are no longer willing to spend thousands of dollars and six months to a year to train their workers to do these highly specialized jobs. They want to hire workers who already are equipped with the necessary skills. Unfortunately, this shortsighted approach on the part of our nation’s corporations has left a worker shortage that we as a country are hard-pressed to fill. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, only 27 percent of all jobs between 2014 and 2022 will require a college degree. The other 73 percent of all jobs will not require any more than an associate’s degree. Skilled manufacturing jobs are good, middle-class, well-paying jobs worth $50,000 a year or more. (See sources cited at end.)

Reflect back to the original question, does “success” require a college degree? The answer depends upon your definition of “success.” If success means becoming a doctor, scientist, engineer, or business person, then pursue the college degree. However, if success is a bit broader – to make enough to live comfortably, buy a home and support a family – then pursue an alternative career choice and learn a skilled trade.